Great Divide adds two new seasonals, HeyDay and Orabelle, removes two others

Great Divide Brewing has continued to shake up its beer roster, announcing the addition of two major new seasonal beers: Orabelle, a Belgian-style trippel that will debut in January as an annual seasonal, and HeyDay, a Belgian-style white that will be available from April through June. Great Divide also says it plans to turn Colette, a fruity Belgian saison, and Nomad, a pilsner that debuted in January of this year, into year-round offerings. Nomad had previously been the January-March seasonal, while Colette was April-June.

As a result, the brewery is discontinuing production of two of its other year-round creations, Wild Raspberry Ale, which dates to the 1990s (Great Divide was founded in 1994), and Samurai, a lighter, unfiltered rice-based beer.

"We feel like Colette and Nomad are better examples of the type of beer we make," says Great Divide spokeswoman Hanna Laney. "Samurai was actually growing as a brand, but we felt like it wasn't indicative of our larger ethos or brewing philosophy."

That ethos, she explains, holds that the brewery is capable of making complex, technical beers at any ABV, and "Nomad is a better example of that," she says. Nomad, a Bohemian pilsner, weighs in at 5.4 percent ABV, about the same as Samurai.

As for the new beers, Orabelle was inspired by a taproom-only beer called Clayton Bigsby that the brewery had served at its eighteenth anniversary party. The rich, Belgian-style trippel will have a slightly lower ABV, around 8.3 percent, than Bigsby, however. "It was really well-received and the pilot system gave us more leeway to run with it," Laney says.

HeyDay, meanwhile, will be "an easy-drinking beer but with that characteristic complexity," Laney says, noting that it includes include coriander and orange peel. "This one has never been poured, so it's very exciting. It will be a great way to start the spring."